Rather than drag the whining down a different road in that h2h loser's thread, I'll comment here and maybe others will follow. We have to accept that Metalic has moved on but we don't have to be happy about it. It's a damn shame.



Because, Chief, this site is supposed to be about chopping. Being creative and manipulating a given image better than anyone else for that day or in your h2h contest. It is not about finding someone else's work that you pass off as your own.

Would it have been fair if one of the other users in this h2h had recruited a different member that might have been better than them, say a chrispis or anfa or supak0ma or ED209, to do an image in their name? Absolutely not. Metalic was given his entry for the h2h, he didn't create it.

Metalic is hailed as one of the best "artists" around here (which I am not disputing) and to have his entry, in round 3, be, at most, a 10 minute job is a let down. Who gives a shit that it was a fantastic idea? Any one of us can find 1000 fantastic ideas in 5 minutes at getty or any number of other sites. While it is an important part of any entry, the idea alone is not what we should be voting for.

I was excited for the tournament and the work it would produce and now its in danger of being riddled with the same over use of stock images that the daily contests have recently displayed.

This tournament was to be a fun competition where a site member came out on top as a result of their own creativity and skill. I'm not sure that will be the result now. That stinks.

I hold nothing against metal--
who knows why-- maybe he was joking or throwing in
the towel and it backfired--
all I have to say is-- I have not chopped anything in months---
for one reason--even if my chops aint very good it still really
really freaking pissed me off when Heather would glue the source real tiny on an image
then blow away my several hour chop-
now half the people do it--
It just saps all the fun out of chopping and
takes away the reward of improvement-
I doubt this effects the seriously good choppers much

i think that it was jst a lazy chop, and that is all that there is too it. metalic is great, and i dont deny that, BUT thats was just a stinker of an effort. i mean its right up there on the lazyness scale as some of these women in the graoery store in the electric carts. For all i care, he shoulda just left the picture stock and told people he made the cymbal gray. crap, at least put a hat on the kid, or something worth loking at. But the person that should be really pissed is Cynn, because she lost to a garbage post that everyone thought was original work.

It is a bit of a pisser though, when you come up with your'e own concept and everything and you get beat by something that's been done before.

Me confused? What happened?

HUH?

What evil has traspired here?

Okay. Did my homework. Now I think I understand the flapperyapping...

This has happened a lot here before and it will undoubtably happen again. Not much chopping, but the source idea transferred onto a (mostly) stock image very well. As discussed a MILLION TIMES HERE there are no set rules as to percentage of source to percentage of googled-Image to percentage of self-created... this means no rules were broken.

I can understand how those who tend to spend LOTS of time at the chopping might feel ripped off by this, it is a good lesson in Art and Its Presentation. Average People Do Not Always Give Points For Lots Of Effort. They Just Know What Makes Them Smile And They Go For That.

I'm not saying it is a great way to run a planet (I personally am saddened by this fact) but that is how it is. For myself the only way to battle this encroaching wave of Microwavable Art is to do my best to create original stuff that will inspire others to do the same. I am clear that yelling at them to change will most likely NOT get me the results that I would like to see.

Cynn - you did a great job. Metalic - you snagged em and won that round. There's the Truth.

Okay - I gotta go take some Happy Pills now. And I think World's Top Model is on in a few moments! YAY!!!!! TV IS THE SOLUTION TO ALL OUR PROBLEMS - LIKEWISE CHOCOLATE!

which is it?
chocolate or tv--this is important.

I thought for a while about the h2h - weather or not I should enter. Eventuly I came to the conclusion that I should. I ALSO like to see chopping in it's truest, purest form. What defines that, changes every day - but it is a great form of communication - it can be very powerful,

I hope to bring a part of that in my next entry in the H2H vs velocity.
If anyone is interested, I'd like to share the sources I found - share what inspires a chop for me - maybe give some insight as to how I searched for sources and the how and why.

I know there are a lot of ideas of what a good chop is - and for some, it's the one that gets the most votes - for others, it's the ones that they connect with - that's the communication between the chopper and the viewer that I like.

the buglover moonbeam post is a great example of the kind of chops that stretch from the ordianary into the extraordianry and we carry a piece of them with us.

Good Chopping All.

had i known that image existed at getty, i would have voted for the other one in the h2h.

hax is the proof of my earlier statement... most voters don't use or browse image banks regularly... so if a preety image shows up, they feel like WOW, click, vote!!! But for some of us who are used to getty and other image banks, we say, ok, the stock image, now let's see what was done on it... when you conclude not much was done, you just think... WTF??!!!! That is what happened with amine, but in a way more stupid way.... amine didn't even do anything on it... posted the image as it was... and still got 20+ votes, in a daily contest...

There are a lot more people posting informaton on what they did, even to posting links to the source pics they used. i know I have done this too. Perhaps this is the wave of the fuure here. I know I am far more likely to vote for a chop if I have the verification that there was actually a significant amount of work that had been done on it.


Conversely, if a poster is asked to produce source pictures and refuses, I will not vote for the post.

This is a very good point (actually a few good points) being brought up here.

I, for one, do NOT have a lot of time to browse through every image bank out there. I usually create mine from scratch if I can. So I tend to look at ALL images here from a "I have no idea what is what here - I just know if I like it". I'm not saying this is a great way for me to be handing out votes, but it is the best I can do at this time.

I'm starting to agree with those that say "LIST YOUR SOURCE BITS" - that way people will be less likely to just add a wee bit to something and take full credit for it. My only concern is that I certainly do NOT have time to verify every good looking post that has a long list of Reference Bits listed. I will tend to even feel like I have LESS time to vote. I realize that this (the time issue) is not something everyone here has problems with, but a bunch of us entree-prenwhoors have so little time to wade through 60+ posts a contest already.

Hmmmmm..... this shall have to be pondered fer sher!

i used a getty for my post, altough it took me a few hours of chopping

I guess in summary I'm just saying that, yes- in an H2H it IS about votes - so you need a winning image - period. So, I wouldn't blame anyone for using a killer source and not doing a whole lot with it.

BUT - I think it IS all about... creating. The whole spirit of chopping is making the viewer stop and think, laugh, appreciate or in some way be affected by your creation. Sometimes that's simple, sometimes it's not.

Speaking directly on the metalic post, it was a bit of a let down.

a bit of a let down? ha ha... a bit of a let down is when i get 20 votes for a three hour chop. not when a ten minute chop advances to round four. The point for me is, that as stunning of a composition as that post was, it wasnt his composition. and we ALL know that if we would have known that was 98% Getty and 2% Metalic, IMO no one would have voted for it, except those that vote for Metalic regardless (I actually thought that one was Cynn's because it was super tight and very clean... but when you have a professional photograph... it'll be that way.) I got duped into my vote. ANY ONE ELSE WANNA TAKE BACK THEIR VOTE? I AM (if only in principle, of course)